The Awful Truth (1937) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)- The five stars are for the film itself not the dvd edition-
This is one of those landmark films that really lives up to its well deserved fame, when one finally has the opportunity to watch it.
Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, are perfectly matched as the ever-quarreling wife and husband, who, in spite of loving each other, for rather childish reasons, are granted a divorce, but before it's final, they have the chance to think it over one last time.
Really hilarious scenes by the two leads and by the excellent supporting cast, especially Ralph Bellamy as Dunne's suitor, Cecil Cunnigham as the wisecracking Aunt Patsy and Esther Dale as Bellamy's mother. Nice bit by Joyce Compton too, as an "air-head" southern-accented, singer, who gives a very peculiar singing-act.
Perfectly paced, at 91 minutes running time, there's no time left to breathe between scenes, so expertly tied to each other, that it's hard to believe it was filmed, as it was told by the actors, mostly unaware of what was going on. Apparently the only one who knew was master of comedy, director Leo McCarey, who won one an Academy Award for it.
Now about the quality of the dvd edition, I must say that I bought this movie along with the dvd editions of "Talk of the Town" and "You Can't Take it with You", completely unaware of the absolutely negative customer reviews here at Amazon. As matter of fact, having watched this movie just last night, and still having not watched the other two, I was absolutely frightened of what I'd see (and what I still have to suffer!), upon reading all those negative reviews by Amazon customers, concerning these three classic films.
Concerning "The Awful Truth", I must say that I feared even worse, because at least some portions of the movie are crisp and clean, but many others are very grainy, bad quality, faded, etc, so one wonders about the "digitally mastered" and the "remastered in high definition", as said on the back of the dvd case. It's one of dvd's I own, and I have almost 200, with the most "uneven" image quality I ever saw.
It's really a pity that Sony-Columbia Classics, didn't treat this classics, the way they had treated the first classics they released on dvd, of which I own many, so I know waht I'm talking about: "It Happened One Night", "His Girl Friday", "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", "Gilda", "Only Angels Have Wings", "Angels Over Broadway", "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington"......especially considering the price of their editions....we all know, Warner releases are cheaper, and until today, their editions are of very good quality, indeed.
So boooohhh for the people who released this editions, so unrespectfully to us classic film buffs, and for charging between U$ 25- 30, for something that shouldn't cost more than 11 bucks.
Still I wonder: The laserdisc editions of these three classics, were as bad as the dvd editions? I don't believe so, 'cos most of the laserdisc editions of classics were of very high definition and quality....so, what happened with the dvd editions? How can it be that one Amazon customer says that the VHS editions of some of this films are better than the dvd ones? I remember watching a TV showing of "You Can't Take It with You"...and its quality was excellent....maybe the laserdisc was the source? Or those excellent copies belong to some other company?.
Sony-Columbia owes an apology to its thousands of customers, and even more, they should release these three classic films, in the way they deserve, as their first aforementioned releases, and give the customers who had the bad luck of buying these bad quality dvd's, the right to exchange them for the really remastered-restored editions.
Until then, we'll have to stick to these editions, 'cos it's all we have, besides recording a better version on TV.

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